Las Vegas gunman's father born in Sheboygan, on FBI Most Wanted list in '60s

Benjamin Paddock, father of Stephen Paddock, who is the suspect behind Sunday night's massacre in Las Vegas, was on the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives list in 1968 after escaping from a Texas prison that same year. Benjamin Paddock was born in Sheboygan.(Photo: FBI)

The father of the Las Vegas mass shooting gunman Stephen Paddock was born in Sheboygan, listed on the FBI's Most Wanted list in 1968 and diagnosed as a psychopath.

The FBI poster seeking Benjamin Paddock, who sometimes called himself "Big Daddy," said he had committed bank robberies and “reportedly has suicidal tendencies and should be considered armed and very dangerous.”

Authorities at the time said Benjamin was a diagnosed psychopath and "extremely dangerous."

Paddock was sought after escaping from a Texas prison on New Year's Eve 1968 and a federal warrant issued for his arrest the following February.

Paddock was sentenced to 20 years in the federal correction facility in La Tuna, Texas, after robbing Valley National Bank in Phoenix in 1960, according to a news article from the Tucson Daily Citizen in 1971, USA Today reports.

Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, father of the suspected Las Vegas shooter, was on the FBI's most wanted list in 1971 after he was convicted of armed robbery and subsequently escaped from prison.(Photo: FBI)

The Most Wanted poster says the elder Paddock was born in 1926 in Sheboygan, had used weapons while committing robberies, may be wearing glasses or contact lenses and was an avid bridge player. His professions listed on the poster included auto mechanic, electrician, promoter, salesman and service station attendant.

One year later, he was arrested in Springfield, Ore., while running a bingo parlor for 1½ years under the alias Bruce W. Ericksen, according to an Associated Press article printed in the Sept. 9, 1978, Milwaukee Journal. He was nabbed by authorities outside his bingo parlor.

The FBI said Paddock was placed on the agency's 10 Most Wanted List in June 1969 and removed in July 1977. It didn't list a reason for the removal of Paddock from the list.

A Eugene, Ore., FBI agent said in September 1978 that the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Paddock had earned the nickname "Chrome Dome" because of his habit of shaving his balding head. Paddock set up his bingo parlor in Oregon as a charity operation with proceeds going to a nonprofit women's organization so he could comply with local gambling ordinances, according to the Milwaukee Journal article.

FBI agents were alerted to Paddock's whereabouts in Oregon after he was featured in a Springfield, Ore., newspaper story along with his photo.

After Paddock's September 1978 arrest, Sheboygan police officials told the Sheboygan Press that they had no contact with Paddock except for his wanted poster that had been tacked up in the police station for nine years.

When Paddock died in 1998 he was living in Arlington, Texas, according to public documents. He's buried at Fort Gibson National Cemetery in Muskogee County, Okla. He served in the U.S. Navy as a seaman second class.

Paddock went by multiple aliases, like Perry Archer, Benjamin J. Butler, and Leo Genstein, among others, Florida Today reports. He also called himself "Big Daddy," and was known by his colleagues as "Old Baldy." He worked as a garbage disposal salesman at the time of his arrest.

Two prior accusations of bank robberies surrounded Benjamin Paddock but were dropped in court.

Police said Benjamin Paddock attempted to run over officers with his vehicle in Las Vegas when they arrested him for the Phoenix robbery.

The Tucson Daily Citizen reported one officer in charge of the FBI Phoenix office said Benjamin Paddock was "a glib, smooth-talking man who is egotistical and arrogant."

When he died in 1998, a columnist for the Eugene, Ore., Register-Guard wrote a column about Paddock, who had been known as "Bingo Bruce." Columnist Don Bishoff remembered Paddock as "one of Eugene-Springfield's most colorful rogues — a con man who loved to stick his pudgy thumb in the eye of authority."

Bishoff interviewed Paddock, who was going by Bruce Ericksen, when his bingo parlor opened in September 1977. Paddock exploited a loophole when Oregon legalized bingo games for charitable or religious groups. Paddock found an obscure nonprofit willing to lend its name to his game for a cut of the profits, wrote Bishoff. Paddock claimed the group got all the profits while he took only a $12,000 salary and small commission.

But the district attorney launched an investigation into Paddock's bingo venture because salaries and commissions violated the state's bingo law. The district attorney also accused Paddock of running an operation that turned back car odometers, Bishoff wrote.

"In addition to illegal activities, he claimed that he'd been a Dixieland band singer, pilot, auto racing crew chief, Chicago Bears pro football player, survivor of (a) World War II mine sweeper sinking, and a wrestler named 'Crybaby' who traveled with Gorgeous George, the Creswell (Ore.) man who was pro wrestling's first superstar," wrote Bishoff. "Some of that may have been true. With Bruce, you never knew."

One year after the FBI arrested him in 1978, he was paroled and back in Oregon telling reporters, "All of that stuff is old news." Soon he returned to the bingo business, this time with a religious sponsor for his game — Holy Life Congregation. Paddock was the head of the nondenominational church, wrote Bishoff.

In 1987, the Oregon attorney general charged Paddock with seven counts of racketeering, accusing him of running an illegal gambling operation as well as turning back odometers. Paddock settled the civil racketeering case by paying $623,000 and pleaded no contest to the criminal charges. He also claimed he was suffering from cancer, Bishoff wrote.

Circuit Court Judge George Woodrich fined him $100,000 with no jail time. "He could be conning everybody, but this is an economic crime and he's an old man. My view is, let him go ... and good riddance," Woodrich told Bishoff.

Paddock moved to Texas with Laurel Paulson, a woman he met in Eugene, Ore., and spent the last decade of his life there, living quietly on a VA pension and helping Paulson run a machine shop. Paulson told Bishoff that Paddock was a soft touch who often gave away his money.

"I always felt he spent his whole life trying to atone for his past," Paulson said.

"He was a man that people either loved or hated. He always said he was a dinosaur."

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

A family grieves during a candlelight vigil for Charleston Hartfield at Police Memorial Park. Hartfield, an off-duty Las Vegas police officer, was killed Sunday during the mass shooting at a music festival across from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Sherri Camperchioli and Jordan Cassel, volunteers from Las Vegas, staple photos of the mass shooting victims on crosses artist Greg Zanis of Aurora, Ill., constructed. He drove across the country to install them on Las Vegas Boulevard to honor the people killed in the mass shooting. Zanis said he has created crosses for many national tragedies. Tom Tingle, USA TODAY Network

Jean Green Dunbar of Las Vegas plants shrubs at the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden in the Arts District of Las Vegas Oct. 5. The garden is intended to help the city heal from the massacre that happened Sunday. Tom Tingle, The Arizona Republic via the USA TODAY Network

Jeanne Belez of Marysville, Ore. places a bouquet of flowers at a memorial on a median on Las Vegas Blvd. near the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Oct. 4, 2017. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Arizona Diamondbacks remember their former employee Christiana Duarte, who was killed this week in the Las Vegas shooting during pregame ceremonies of the National League Wild Card game on Oct. 4, 2017 in Phoenix, Ariz. Rob Schumacher, The Arizona Republic, via USA TODAY NETWORK

Crystal Fernandez, left, and Carmen Arias share a moment at a memorial that sprung up on a median on Las Vegas Blvd. near the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Oct. 4, 2017. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Linda Proctor hugs Dr. Robert T. Baggott as her husband, Donnie Proctor, waits to the right during a memorial at Community Church of Vero Beach, Fla. on Oct. 4, 2017, for those who died in the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Jeremiah Wilson, TCPalm, via USA TODAY NETWORK

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania arrive at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. . President Trump is planning on meeting victims of Sunday's mass shooting. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

With the lights of the Las Vegas Strip as a backdrop, people gathered on a vacant lot on Las Vegas Blvd. for a candlelight vigil in the memory of the victims of the Mandalay Bay mass shooting, Oct. 2, 2017. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Michael Kordich, 34, a firefighter with the San Bernardino County Fire Dept., performed CPR on a fellow concert goer who had been shot, before Kordich himself was shot in the arm during the Las Vegas massacre. He talks about the life-changing events from his hospital bed at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Oct. 3, 2017. Tom Tingle, The Arizona Republic via the USA TODAY Network

Sara Rivero, on right, with her mom Laura Rodriguez, in center and Gisell Rivera, her step mother, burn a candle at the memorial site on Las Vegas Blvd, for friends who died at the concert. Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic via the USA TODAY Network

Members of the Las Vegas community pray during an emotional vigil for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting at Mountain Crest Park, Oct. 3, 2017. Jay Calderon, The Desert Sun Via the USA TODAY Nertwork

Matthew Edwards puts a teddy bear and flowers at the memorial site. When asked about his feelings he said "I cannot understand what has happened here... what would drive a man to do what he did" Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic via the USA TODAY Network

With the lights of the Las Vegas Strip as a backdrop, people gathered on a vacant lot on Las Vegas Blvd. for a candlelight vigil in the memory of the victims of the Mandalay Bay mass shooting, Oct. 2, 2017. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

People gather at Trocadero plaza as the lights of the Eiffel tower are turned off, in Paris on Oct. 2, 2017. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the Eiffel tower will turn off its lights to pay tribute to Las Vegas and Marseille victims. Kamil Zihnioglu, AP

The American flag is at half-staff at the White House in Washington on Oct. 2, 2017. President Donald Trump ordered that flags be lowered at all government buildings to honor the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

People walks past flowers left on a pedestrian bridge overlooking Las Vegas Blvd. in Las Vegas on Oct. 2, 2017, two blocks from the Mandalay Bay Hotel Casino where a gunman killed dozens and injured hundreds of people attending a concert. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Broken windows are seen on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino after a lone gunman opened fired on the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Oct. 2, 2017, in Las Vegas. David Becker, Getty Images

An injured person is tended to in the intersection of Tropicana Ave. and Las Vegas Boulevard after a mass shooting at a country music festival nearby on October 2, 2017 in Las Vegas. Ethan Miller, Getty Images

A woman sits on a curb at the scene of a shooting outside of a music festival along the Las Vegas Strip, Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Las Vegas. Multiple victims were being transported to hospitals. John Locher, AP

People are searched by Las Vegas police at the Tropicana Las Vegas during an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Strip. Multiple victims were being transported to hospitals after a shooting late Sunday at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Chase Stevens, Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP

A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer stands in the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Ave. after a mass shooting at a country music festival nearby on October 2, 2017 in Las Vegas. Ethan Miller, Getty Images

People take cover at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after apparent gun fire was heard on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are reports of an active shooter around the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. David Becker, Getty Images